Reader Response Chart

by Breanna Wind

bookstack.jpg

Why?
-to help organize our thoughts and understanding of text
-to help guide reading

Main Instructional Focus: Reading Comprehension

How This Is Accomplished: Promotes the students' recall, response, exploration, and inferences from the text.

How This Aids English Learners: Students are encouraged to ask questions about unfamiliar words, describe how they are feeling in response to the text, connect their prior knowledge, point out what stuck out to them, connect/relate to the characters or plot
through writing and/or illustrating

Reading Response Charts help build a bridge between the student and the content (despite the language barrier) through pictures, guided reading, opportunities for questioning, and promoting connections/relating to the text


What Does This Look Like?
-Reader Response Charts (RRCs) take on a variety of forms:
+Anchor Charts
+Post-It Notes
+Graphic Organizers
+T-Charts: Students draw a T-chart on their paper. On the left side they write 3 interesting quotes from the story and on the right side students respond to the quote with personal reactions, memories, questions, compare/contrast, or something to learn more about.



Here is an example of a Reader Response Chart that is appropriate for the lower-elementary grades (1-2):



Recall
You will notice that this RRC provides a box to briefly report about what was read and draw a picture of what they read (allowing EL’s to showcase their comprehension).
Responding
The students can then describe how they felt while reading. The visual faces helps EL students express themselves and organize their thoughts before writing a sentence.
Inferring
Then, the students have the opportunity to draw a picture and write a sentence about their prediction for what will happen next.


Here is an example of a RRC that is appropriate for the upper-elementary grades (3-6):



This contains many of the same elements as the lower-elementary RRC, with a couple more thought-provoking questions:
Recalling
What happened? What happened to your favorite character?
Responding
How did you feel about what happened? How would you feel if that happened to you?
Exploring
Do you have any questions?
Inferring
What will happen next?



Another RRC that can be used is the Sticky-Tracker: Students can write their responses and make connections on sticky-notes and stick these over-top a description of what happened and the page number. These responses can include:
-Predictions
-Connections
-Opinions
-Explorations
-Playing with Language
-Evaluations


How To Use RRCs in the Classroom:

1. Each student should have a text that is at an appropriate reading level
2. Students should each have/make their own RRC (worksheets, T-Chart, etc. as chosen by teacher)
3. Teacher models the use of RRC with a story the entire class reads, then releases responsibility to the students as individuals in their independent reading

Video:
http://youtu.be/tRq0_NLE1cE